Some electronic banking toys allow a user to set a target savings amount and a deadline for reaching the target. In such banking toys, as the user approaches the target savings amount, the life of a virtual character shown on an LCD screen progresses. For example, as more coins are placed in the bank, the character moves from a meager house to a nice house, gets married, and finds a better job. Other banking toys reward a user with stickers as the user saves more money in the bank.
Examples of banking toys are found in the following patents and published patent applications: U.S. Pat. No. 3,940,141, U.S. Pat. No. 3,992,805, U.S. Pat. No. 3,997,045, U.S. Pat. No. 4,226,044, U.S. Pat. No. 4,282,674, U.S. Pat. No. 4,295,036, U.S. Pat. No. 4,799,678, U.S. Pat. No. 5,465,909, U.S. Pat. No. 5,716,211, U.S. Pat. No. 5,944,254, U.S. Pat. No. 5,976,018, U.S. Pat. No. 6,364,771, U.S. Pat. No. 6,454,570, U.S. Pat. No. 6,461,238, U.S. Pat. No. 6,685,565, U.S. Pat. No. 6,896,573, U.S. Pat. No. 6,902,459, U.S. Pat. No. 6,976,619, U.S. Pat. No. 7,128,644, US20020119744, US20060160588, US20060292956, JP1318532, and JP2005296560.
The disclosures of all the patent publications, patents, and other publications recited in this application are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety for all purposes.